Some of seats for automobiles are detachable. For example, according to some seats practically used, seats of a second row arranged within an automobile compartment are formed to be divided into three in a widthwise direction, and the central seat of them is made to be attachable to and detachable from a floor as a removable seat. In this case, the central removable seat is normally formed to be narrower in width than the seats on both sides. Further, in a so-to-speak bench seat state, in which the central seat is aligned with both seats on the left and right sides, the seats can be utilized as three passenger's seats, and in a state of removing the central seat, the seats are made to be two passenger's seats by the seats on both left and right sides, while the passenger can walk through rearward by passing the portion for the central seat. Therefore, improvement in convenience of the passenger within the automobile compartment is achieved.
Meanwhile, the removed central seat is stored by being taken out from inside of the automobile chamber to the outside, or stored by providing a storing place within the compartment. Generally, in many cases, the storing place is provided within the compartment from a viewpoint of ensuring a state of being attachable and detachable at any time.
In the case that the storing place of the seat for enabling attachment and detachment is provided within the compartment, the storing place is provided at a lower portion of a floor face, or a storage container is installed on the floor face within the automobile compartment. A storing structure disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3309800 is its example.
Further, a structure of a seat attaching and detaching mechanism enabling the removable seat to be attachable to and detachable from the floor is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-2004-338576. According to its specific construction, lower faces of left and right seat legs arranged on a lower side of a seat cushion are provided with a left and right pair of lock mechanisms, which can be engaged to be locked by strikers fixedly mounted to the floor, at two portions on a vehicle front side and a vehicle rear side. The front and rear lock mechanisms are respectively connected to an operation lever arranged at an upper face of a bottom frame that receives the seat cushion, the front and rear lock mechanisms are brought into a lock release state by operating the operation lever, and the central seat can be attached to and detached from the floor by releasing engagement with the strikers disposed on the floor. Further, a striker receiving opening of the rear side lock mechanism is opened downwardly, and a striker receiving opening of the front side lock mechanism is opened forwardly.
In the case that the attachable and detachable seat is stored to any place within the automobile compartment as described above, in order to move the detached seat to the storing place, the movement is carried out by laying a guide member such as a rail or the like from the seat installing position to the storing position. With this, the detached seat is guided by the rail to be reliably guided to move to the storing place.
However, in the case that the detached seat is guided by the guide member such as a rail or the like as described above, it is necessary to continuously provide the guide member such as a rail or the like between the position of installing the seat and the storing position, and particularly in the case that a position of arranging the rail is disposed on the floor face, it may cause a problem that the rail constitutes an obstacle when the passenger moves, or an outlook of inside of the compartment is poor.
Further, with regard to the seat attaching and detaching mechanism for enabling the removable seat attachable and detachable to and from the floor, the following various problems may exist. That is, the lock mechanisms are incorporated both on the front side and the rear side as engaging means, and therefore, increase in the number of parts and complication of the constitution are unavoidable. Although striker releasing directions of the front and rear lock mechanisms (opening directions of striker receiving inlets) differ from each other, there exists no special significance in this fact itself. Further, the lock mechanisms are provided on the side of the seat, and therefore, a problem may be caused that the weight of the seat is increased, and a large force is necessary for the operation of attaching or detaching the seat.
Thus, there is a need in the art to enable elimination of installation of the guide means such as a rail or the like on a path between a seat installation position and a storage position by providing means for guiding a detached removable seat from the seat installation position to the storage position to the a seat installing member and means for storing the seat themselves.